Our journey to Phuket began with Bowen eating an entire fennel in the airport terminal. Turns out you can buy all kinds of organic vegetables, dehydrated food, and beer all in Don Mueang airport. That however was the peak of excitement to be had in the airport, and, after an unexpected and untold gate change, we were in the air headed to Phuket.
We landed in the darkness, again, and proceeded to find a taxi and head to Shanti's island location. We were all expecting more of the same as the one in Bangkok, however were pleasantly surprised to find that this one had a pool, as well as multiple buildings, which all felt quite comfortable. Other than the noisy floorboards that existed on the entire top floor of the building pictured, this place felt 100 times better than Bangkok's loud, smelly, fast paced madness. We all got ourselves settled and decided to call it a night.
The next day we decided, since we were on the island to check out the Vegetarian Festival, we might as well head into Phuket town and see what we could see. Mom and Dad asked what ways there were in to town, and decided on taking the local transit. This apparently impressed the manager that we had the patience for such a possibly tedious mode of transport. Now I'm sure you're all thinking of your stereotypical city bus, however the buses here are not at all like what they are at home. Here they are simply pickup trucks with benches, a roof, and some plastic curtains for when its raining out. Not to say that this is a bad thing though. I found it to be a nice change to the norm I've become accustomed to at home.
When we finally got into the town we weren't sure what to expect. I for one wasn't expecting to be hassled for a taxi of damn tuk tuks the second we got out of the bus. That's one thing I find pretty annoying here, everyone is always trying to sell you something, even if you're literally walking out of a bus. After we told the tuk tuk driver to leave us alone, we made our way to the main street that we were told vendors would be selling vegetarian food along. I only pictured about a city block or so of vendors on maybe one side of the street, however it ended up being about 6 times that, along both sides of the street. And you literally couldn't find actual meat anywhere no matter how hard you looked. People seem to take this festival very, very seriously. You couldn't find a Thai in Phuket Town who wasn't wearing white. (the traditional color to wear during the festival)
Normally, at home when we have something similar to this festival, we get the streets shut down right? Well apparently having trucks, scooters and tuk tuks driving inches from you while you buy fireworks and vegetarian food all day doesn't bother anyone. The road was constantly packed with festival goers, buses and food stalls. Personally I almost got hit by a few motorbikes, simply because I was in the state of mind that the streets would be closed off to traffic.
As we further explored the streets, gawking at the amount of different ways people were able to sculpt tofu, we stumbled upon a very Chinese looking temple. Outside were some local kids throwing firecrackers at old people, who seemed to continue by unfazed. Inside the temple were tons of locals, all either praying, burning huge clumps of incense, or burning fake Chinese money. All of this, along with staying vegetarian during the festival would apparently bring you good luck. Also, if you light off a huge drum of fireworks in a tower that is literally built for said act, you would also become very lucky. At least that's what I've been assuming.
After doing everything we could do at the festival so far, which took a few days, we decided to head to a beach that mom has been dreaming of going to since 2004. She made this very clear how long she's been waiting not only to us, but again to some guy hassling us to come to a timeshare presentation the second we got off the bus. We only walked probably a total of 35 feet to the spot we wanted to set up at, but you can sure bet we were harassed by people wanting to sell us this that and the other. It was a miracle we even got in the ocean at all that day! The one thing that bugged me the most about the beach salespeople, were the ones selling sunglasses. We were all wearing sunglasses to begin with, and then were told ours weren't "top quality polarized".
However, besides being annoyed with these people, we did enjoy our time on the beach. Mom and Dad got their relaxing (or semi-relaxing) beach day they had been wanting for quite a while. After we left, Bowen and I convinced Mom and Dad to pay for us to try out some Thai go-karts. These turned out to be nothing like they are at home. The karts on offer (depending on what you pay, our karts went to 70km/h) could reach speeds of 110km/h. Compared to Calgary go-karts, these are traveling at Mach 3. Driving those around for 15 minutes was a great way to end the day.
Our next move seems to be lining up to be the island of Kho Yao Noi. If you try finding it on some maps and probably any globe, you won't find it. We were shown by Kim, the owner of Shanti Bangkok and Phuket, that some maps seem to not even label the tiny island.
Either way I personally am enjoying our time over here. It might get on my nerves at times but it can't be perfect.
~ Hollis
-A slightly unnerving sight to wake up to just outside your bedroom door
-Brent, we had to take this for you. Electrical safety here is about #4 on the list of priorities.
We landed in the darkness, again, and proceeded to find a taxi and head to Shanti's island location. We were all expecting more of the same as the one in Bangkok, however were pleasantly surprised to find that this one had a pool, as well as multiple buildings, which all felt quite comfortable. Other than the noisy floorboards that existed on the entire top floor of the building pictured, this place felt 100 times better than Bangkok's loud, smelly, fast paced madness. We all got ourselves settled and decided to call it a night. The next day we decided, since we were on the island to check out the Vegetarian Festival, we might as well head into Phuket town and see what we could see. Mom and Dad asked what ways there were in to town, and decided on taking the local transit. This apparently impressed the manager that we had the patience for such a possibly tedious mode of transport. Now I'm sure you're all thinking of your stereotypical city bus, however the buses here are not at all like what they are at home. Here they are simply pickup trucks with benches, a roof, and some plastic curtains for when its raining out. Not to say that this is a bad thing though. I found it to be a nice change to the norm I've become accustomed to at home. Normally, at home when we have something similar to this festival, we get the streets shut down right? Well apparently having trucks, scooters and tuk tuks driving inches from you while you buy fireworks and vegetarian food all day doesn't bother anyone. The road was constantly packed with festival goers, buses and food stalls. Personally I almost got hit by a few motorbikes, simply because I was in the state of mind that the streets would be closed off to traffic.As we further explored the streets, gawking at the amount of different ways people were able to sculpt tofu, we stumbled upon a very Chinese looking temple. Outside were some local kids throwing firecrackers at old people, who seemed to continue by unfazed. Inside the temple were tons of locals, all either praying, burning huge clumps of incense, or burning fake Chinese money. All of this, along with staying vegetarian during the festival would apparently bring you good luck. Also, if you light off a huge drum of fireworks in a tower that is literally built for said act, you would also become very lucky. At least that's what I've been assuming.
After doing everything we could do at the festival so far, which took a few days, we decided to head to a beach that mom has been dreaming of going to since 2004. She made this very clear how long she's been waiting not only to us, but again to some guy hassling us to come to a timeshare presentation the second we got off the bus. We only walked probably a total of 35 feet to the spot we wanted to set up at, but you can sure bet we were harassed by people wanting to sell us this that and the other. It was a miracle we even got in the ocean at all that day! The one thing that bugged me the most about the beach salespeople, were the ones selling sunglasses. We were all wearing sunglasses to begin with, and then were told ours weren't "top quality polarized".
However, besides being annoyed with these people, we did enjoy our time on the beach. Mom and Dad got their relaxing (or semi-relaxing) beach day they had been wanting for quite a while. After we left, Bowen and I convinced Mom and Dad to pay for us to try out some Thai go-karts. These turned out to be nothing like they are at home. The karts on offer (depending on what you pay, our karts went to 70km/h) could reach speeds of 110km/h. Compared to Calgary go-karts, these are traveling at Mach 3. Driving those around for 15 minutes was a great way to end the day.Either way I personally am enjoying our time over here. It might get on my nerves at times but it can't be perfect.
~ Hollis
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